eel
RESEARCH PROGRAMME ON
EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT
LINKAGES
Education Employment Linkages:
Perspectives from Employer-Led Channels
Paul Dalziel
EEL Research Report No. 5
1 July 2010
www.eel.org.nz
AERU Research Unit of Lincoln University
New Zealand Council for Educational Research
Published on behalf of the EEL Research Programme by:
AERU Research Unit
Lincoln University
P.O. Box 84
Lincoln 7647
NEW ZEALAND
ISSN: 1178-329X (Print)
ISSN: 1178-3303 (Online)
ISBN: 978-1-877519-10-9
The Research Programme on Education Employment Linkages is a collaborative project of
the AERU Research Centre of Lincoln University and the New Zealand Council for
Educational Research in Wellington. Both organisations gratefully acknowledge substantial
funding support from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology that has made the
research possible. We are also grateful for ongoing support and guidance from our External
Reference Group, nominated by the Ministry of Youth Development, the Ministry of Social
Development, the Ministry of Education, the Department of Labour, Te Puni Kōkiri, the
Tertiary Education Commission and Career Services.
The contents of this report are the responsibility of the author, and should not be attributed to
any of the organisations named in the previous paragraph.
Copies of all EEL Research Reports can be downloaded from the Programme‘s website:
www.eel.org.nz. Information contained in any EEL Research Report may be reproduced,
provided that an acknowledgement of the source is made.
eel
Contents
List of Figures
ii
List of Tables
ii
Abstract
iii
Acknowledgements
iv
Executive Summary
v
Chapter 1: Introduction
1
Chapter 2: The Employer Landscape
7
Chapter 3: Students and Career Guidance
10
Chapter 4: Employers and Industry Training Organisations
13
Chapter 5: Universities and Institutes of Technology or Polytechnics
16
Chapter 6: Secondary Schools and Career Education
20
Chapter 7: Conclusion
23
References
25
Appendix 1: Information Provided to Participants
27
Appendix 2: List of Participants
29
i
eel
List of Figures
Figure 1: School-to-Work Transitions
2
Figure 2: Geographical Distribution of the Interviews
5
List of Tables
Table 1: Elements of Employer-Led Channels
3
Table 2: Categories of Interviews
4
Table 3: Number of Employing Enterprises by Number of Employees, February 2008
7
ii
eel
Abstract
This report presents results from a series of key informant interviews carried out in 2009
about employer-led channels for helping young New Zealanders make effective educationemployment linkages during their transition years. Employers have become more connected
to education institutions, motivated in part by serious skills shortages that emerged over the
last decade. Career Services is recognised as a superb source of reliable career information,
advice and guidance, whose services could be more widely used. The interviews revealed a
concern that large numbers of young New Zealanders undervalue the positive benefits that
can be achieved with good quality career guidance. There was wide support for further
development of careers education in secondary and in tertiary education institutions. Another
theme concerned finding ways to better manage relationships between educators and
employers, including the greater use of specialist brokers. Finally, participants emphasised
again and again the importance of supporting effective systems for helping young people to
imagine different possibilities for their career development, and for helping them to develop
skills for exploring and assessing a full range of opportunities as they construct their own
career pathways.
iii
eel
Acknowledgements
The author is very grateful to the people involved in helping young people in New Zealand
make good education employment linkages and who agreed to be interviewed for this report
(see Appendix 2). I am also very grateful to the members of the project‘s external reference
group that provided advice on this phase of the research at a seminar held in Wellington on 24
July 2009: Janis Freegard, Matt Freeland and Matalena Leaupepe (Career Services); Paul
Barker, Damian O‘Neill and Linda Sorensen (Department of Labour); Jocelyn Anton
(Ministry of Education); Dillon Burke, Doug Gorman, Jon Saunders and Daniel Soughton
(Ministry of Social Development); Marten Hutt (Ministry of Youth Development); Anne
Hardman and Sharmaine Nolan (Te Puni Kōkiri); and Che Tibby and Felicity Wong (Tertiary
Education Commission). A research workshop in February 2010 with my EEL colleagues
provided very valuable feedback on an initial analysis of the interview material, and I am very
grateful to Jane Higgins, Hazel Phillips and Karen Vaughan for their generous insights. I am
also grateful to the workshop facilitator, Margaret Hanson, for her professional expertise in
helping us to bring our diverse research threads together.
The author welcomes any feedback on the report, which can be sent to:
Professor Paul Dalziel (paul.dalziel@lincoln.ac.nz)
AERU Research Centre
P.O. Box 84
Lincoln University
Lincoln 7647
NEW ZEALAND
iv
eel
Executive Summary
Introduction
1.
In 2009, each member of the research team undertook a series of semi-structured
interviews with key informants under their respective headings. The purpose of the
interviews was to draw on the participants‘ experience and expertise to gain insights
into how current support systems help young New Zealanders make good education
employment linkages. This included 30 interviews by the author with 41 people from
different parts of New Zealand who have important roles in employer-led channels. This
report presents the author‘s analysis of material gathered in those 30 interviews.
2.
Employer-led channels are systems that begin with direct contact with employers and
use these contacts to channel information to young people in secondary school or in
further education or training. These systems are located at different sites. Employer
groups themselves are an obvious example. Industry Training Organisations (ITOs)
provide leadership within the industry on matters relating to skill and training. Public
providers of further education and training – particularly universities, institutes of
technology and polytechnics – have dedicated officers employed to assist their students,
or their potential students, make good education employment linkages. Certain
government agencies play key roles in gathering and disseminating education
employment information; most notably Career Services.
3.
The primary research method was to conduct semi-structured interviews with key
informants from different parts of the country, including people from the above sectors.
The interviews took place between 10 September and 2 December 2009. There were six
interviews with employer groups; nine interviews with ITOs; six interviews with
universities; five interviews with institutes of technology or polytechnics; and four
interviews with organisations from central or local government. One-third of the
interviews were from people located in the South Island, and two-thirds were in the
North Island. The largest groups were from Auckland, Wellington and Otago (17 per
cent each).
The Employer Landscape
4.
Employer-led channels must begin with a mechanism for collecting information from
employers, most of whom are managers of small businesses with fewer than six
employees. Recognising this, standard practice in New Zealand is for career information
on industries to be collected and distributed by a government agency. This is now the
responsibility of Career Services.
5.
The peak organisation for employers is Business New Zealand, which is concerned to
strengthen relationships between education and business. Throughout New Zealand
there are a large number of industrial associations. Tertiary education organisations
have begun to use these associations to provide feedback on their education
programmes. This is typically achieved by asking them to nominate a representative on
an employers‘ reference group.
v
eel
6.
Because industry training is ‗provided for people employed in an industry‘ ITOs
originally paid little attention to schools in order to focus on workers in industry
employment. In recent years, this approach has changed as many ITOs have recognised
that skills leadership includes engaging with schools to ensure that students are aware of
industry training options that might become part of their learning and career pathways.
Students and Career Guidance
7.
People interviewed for this project often placed the young person at the centre of the
issue. Five participants argued strongly, for example, that career guidance should aim to
help young people discover and develop their whole person, and not simply vocational
or professional skills. Another constant theme expressed concern about young people
who become disengaged from education and skills development in their early teens.
8.
In this context, there was general support that students can benefit from making direct
links with employers, or learning about employer expectations, early in their secondary
and tertiary studies. Such links can help motivate study and encourage independent
learning based on good planning, and may also help students to consider what extracurricular activities they might develop for their career aspirations.
9.
Two general sets of comments were made. The first set emphasised the importance of
stimulating young people to explore their potential capabilities and to imagine a range
of different possibilities for their future pathways. The second set emphasised the
importance of preparing trustworthy career education resources targeted at young
people, particularly with the aim of helping young persons to consider a full range of
different options. The Career Services website was cited as an excellent example.
10.
Participants suggested that a large number of young people leave school with no
appreciation of the potential value of good professional career advice and guidance.
Many students in the middle of the scholastic range at school regard themselves as
neither struggling nor very bright, and so think they do not need career guidance.
Students who do not value career guidance may ‗drift‘ into a course of study without
developing effective career management skills and with little contact with employers.
Consequently, a strong theme to come through the interviews was the suggestion that
personal career education is important for everyone.
Employers and Industry Training Organisations
11.
There has been a movement towards greater connections between employer groups and
education institutions. There was a wide range of opinions expressed about the
willingness of employers to be involved in career education. Eight suggested that
employers will become involved if they are provided with a reason for involvement, and
if their time is used efficiently with clear boundaries on the extent of their commitment.
12.
Half of the interviews included comments that were supportive of more links or stronger
partnerships between secondary schools and local employers, with some being
particularly forceful in their opinion that this would be valuable for students (and for
their transition pathways) and for the involved employers. Six interviewees suggested
that ‗brokered relationships‘ would work best, in which a specialist consultant or
organisation ensures that any initiatives successfully promote the objectives of everyone
involved.
vi
eel
13.
Several interviews commented favourably on existing programmes, such as Gateway,
for linking employers and schools. Five interviews suggested that a school might set up
an advisory committee of its local employers, or host a school breakfast for this group,
to strengthen linkages with the school‘s business community.
14.
People reported no serious issues about education employment linkages for people who
are undergoing training under ITO supervision. The qualifications are intended to meet
industry needs, and the trainees are in employment (and so connected directly to
employers). People who ask an ITO about career pathways in a sector can be referred to
industry employers, or their websites, for reliable information and advice.
15.
One caveat to this positive assessment concerns how young people in schools obtain
information about skills-based career opportunities in the industries covered by ITOs.
All the people interviewed from the ITO sector described major investments by ITOs in
preparing resources for secondary schools. Almost all of these descriptions were
accompanied by a comment that this work receives no direct funding from government.
16.
ITOs have begun developing unit standards suitable for delivery by secondary schools
and have set up processes for delivering and moderating these standards. In some cases,
individual ITOs have combined in order to produce learning materials for schools.
Universities and Institutes of Technology or Polytechnics
17.
These public institutions play two important roles in employer-led channels for assisting
young people make good education-employment linkages. First, they provide material
to potential recruits. Second, they provide career education and career guidance services
to students enrolled in their courses.
18.
A question addressed in the interviews was whether information distributed by these
tertiary institutions to prospective students (in printed give-away material or on the
institution‘s website) undergoes any formal quality assurance process. The answer is
generally not.
19.
The recruitment officers were clear that they do not attempt to offer career advice or
course advice to prospective students. Rather, their role is to market programmes as best
they can. If a potential student asks for career advice, he or she is referred to the
institution‘s careers office, since that is where the qualified advisors reside.
20.
Once a student begins a course of study, there are four key moments at which they may
have some contact with the institution‘s careers office: (1) in their first weeks of arrival
when the office joins in welcoming and orientation events; (2) if they discover early in
their course that they need to revisit their education choices; (3) if they are required to
participate in some form of work-based learning; and (4) as they near the end of their
course and are seeking employment to match their new qualifications.
21.
The interviews revealed four areas where it was suggested there is potential for
systematic improvements. The first area concerns curriculum design, in which the
careers office could draw on their experience and networks to provide feedback from
employers to educators.
22.
The second area concerns a significant number of students who can ‗drift‘ into their
course of study at university without realising the value of thinking about developing
vii
eel
effective career management skills. Careers advisors in the interviews noted that some
of their clients do later regret the time it took for them to seek career guidance or to
learn techniques for framing their career choices.
23.
The third area concerns the tracking of the achievements of different programmes in
preparing their graduates for employment. It was suggested that there should be
published data on completion rates and graduate outcomes so that potential students can
incorporate this information in making their choices
24.
The fourth area concerns perceptions that career advice given to young people in New
Zealand (both formal guidance by careers advisors and informal advice by family and
friends) generally undervalues trades education in favour of university education. There
have been some recent initiatives to address this perceived imbalance in career advice.
Secondary Schools and Career Education
25.
It is important to emphasise that the ‗employer-led channels‘ theme of this research did
not incorporate interviews with key informants from school communities. Nevertheless,
the interviews provided valuable feedback on how career education in secondary
schools is perceived by outsiders closely involved in helping young people in transition.
26.
The interviews were replete with examples of recent initiatives in schools that
participants described as exciting and valuable for students. There were several general
statements commenting that careers advisors in schools are doing okay in what is a
difficult job, and are typically enthusiastic about cooperating in projects that they think
will benefit their students.
27.
People spoke highly of some schools where the careers office is a strong team of
qualified professionals offering a range of skills and services to their students, with full
support from the principal. There was also a strong theme, however, that not all
secondary students have valuable experiences with their careers office.
28.
Possible ways to address this issue can be grouped into two types of response. The first
group of responses suggested that careers offices in schools need more resources that
are ring-fenced for providing better career advice and guidance. The second group of
responses suggested that careers offices should be more focused on career education,
rather than providing career guidance (especially if their professional qualifications are
as educators).
Conclusion
29.
There was considerable support in the interviews for the proposition that New Zealand
needs to create better systems for careers education, and for improving employer-led
channels of information to young people. Chapter 7 gives a précis of the major themes
that emerged in the interviews, already summarised in previous paragraphs of this
executive summary.
viii
eel
Chapter 1
Introduction
The education employment linkages (EEL) research programme is a five-year research
programme that has been funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology
since July 2007 (see Dalziel et al, 2007, and www.eel.org.nz). The EEL research programme
seeks to provide new knowledge about issues affecting young people‘s education and
employment choices as they move from school to work, with a particular aim to investigate
how formal support systems best help young New Zealanders make good education
employment linkages to benefit themselves, their communities, and the national economy.
The research is taking place under four integrated headings led by different members of the
research team: school communities (Karen Vaughan); regional communities (Jane Higgins);
Māori and Pasifika communities (Hazel Phillips); and employer-led channels (Paul Dalziel).
In 2009, each member of the research team undertook a series of semi-structured interviews
with key informants under their respective headings. The purpose of the interviews was to
draw on the participants‘ experience and expertise to gain insights into how current support
systems help young New Zealanders make good education employment linkages. This
included 30 interviews by the author with 41 people from different parts of New Zealand who
have important roles in employer-led channels. This report presents the author‘s analysis of
material gathered in those 30 interviews.
The remainder of this chapter begins with an explanation in section 1.1 of how the EEL
research programme defines employer-led channels. Section 1.2 then explains how the semistructured interviews were carried out, and provides some summary statistics about the range
of participants (by geographical region and sector). Chapter 2 provides some background
material on the employer landscape. Subsequent chapters then present results drawn from the
interviews under the following headings: students and career guidance (chapter 3); employers
and industry training organisations (chapter 4); universities and institutes of technology or
polytechnics (chapter 5); and secondary schools and career education (chapter 6). The report
finishes with a brief conclusion in chapter 7.
1.1
Employer-Led Channels
School-leavers who want to engage in further education or training typically need information
about employment opportunities and employer expectations in order to make good choices. It
may not be easy for individuals to obtain such information using their own resources, and so
governments devote considerable resources to creating and operating systems to help their
citizens evaluate different career pathway options (see Higgins et al, 2008, and its references).
Figure 1 provides a stylised diagram of a student‘s transition years. It is ‗stylised‘ because
simple linear transition pathways such as those depicted in the figure are not as common for
the modern generation of young people as they once were. Nevertheless, the figure captures
key components of the process. On leaving school, the young person might choose to enrol in
further ‗education‘ (leading to degree qualifications) or in further ‗training‘ (leading to
vocational qualifications). They might also move directly into employment, or fall under the
residual heading of ‗not in employment, education or training‘.
1
eel
Figure 1
School-to-Work Transitions
Education
Young Person in
Secondary School
Employers
Training
Not in Employment, Education or Training
(NEET)
Source: Dalziel (2010a, Figure 3).
Considering how young people obtain reliable information about career pathway options,
there are a number of obvious sites of engagement. First, schools themselves devote
considerable resources to this task; the National Administration Guidelines for New Zealand
schools, for example, require ‗appropriate career education and guidance for all students in
year 7 and above‘ (MoE, 2009a, NAG 1f). Regional communities, and Māori and Pasifika
communities, participate in a wide range of programmes to enhance the participation of their
youth in employment, education or training. These community initiatives, including initiatives
in school communities, are the subject of other reports being written in the EEL Research
Report series.
Another set of systems may be described as ‗employer-led channels‘. These are systems that
begin with direct contact with employers and use these contacts to channel information to
young people in secondary school or in further education or training. These systems are
located at different sites. Employer groups themselves are an obvious example. Industry
Training Organisations (ITOs) are set up by industry and recognised by government (among
other things) to ‗provide leadership within the industry on matters relating to skill and training
needs‘ (Industry Training Act, 1992, section 6(c)). Public providers of further education and
training – particularly universities, institutes of technology and polytechnics – have dedicated
officers employed to assist their students, or their potential students, make good education
employment linkages. Certain government agencies play key roles in gathering and
disseminating education employment information; most notably Career Services (see
www.careerservices.govt.nz).
2
eel
A previous EEL Research Report (Vaughan et al, 2009) has described key elements in
systems that make up employer-led channels. These elements are reproduced in Table 1. They
are grouped under four major components:
1.
Information creation and organisation.
2.
Advice, guidance and education.
3.
Education employment linkages.
4.
System policies and regulation.
The 7 to 9 elements in each component may be performed by different agencies; indeed in some
cases this is highly desirable (quality assurance, for example, is likely to be best done by an
agency that is independent from the agency that prepares a resource). The purpose of the key
informant interviews carried out for this report was to understand some of the strengths and
weaknesses in New Zealand‘s current systems of employer-led channels for helping young people
make good education employment linkages during their transition years. The research design of
these interviews is explained in the next section.
Table 1
Elements of Employer-Led Channels
Information Creation and Organisation
1.01 Data Collection
1.02 Data Analysis
1.03 Data Collation
1.04 Resource Preparation
1.05 Quality Assurance
1.06 Resources Library
1.07 Private Website
1.08 Public Website
1.09 Promotional Material
Advice, Guidance and Education
2.01 Individual Drop-In Advice
2.02 E-mail Queries
2.03 Guidance Appointments
2.04 Course Advice
2.05 Job Search Skills
2.06 Career Education
2.07 Individual Identity Work
2.08 Individual Social Support
2.09 Family Support
Education Employment Linkages
3.01 Career Expos
3.02 Employer Visits
3.03 Vacancy Notices
3.04 Curriculum Relevance
3.05 Work Experience
3.06 Work-Based Learning
3.07 Student Placement with Employers
3.08 Post-Placement Support
3.09 Graduation Tracking
System Policies and Regulation
4.01 Policy Submissions
4.02 Policy Advice
4.03 Programme Funding
4.04 Education Standards
4.05 Professional Standards
4.06 Standards Monitoring
4.07 Disciplinary Procedures
Source: Vaughan et al. (2009, Table 2).
3
eel
1.2
The Key Informant Interviews
The research design for this component of the EEL research programme was discussed at a
Wellington seminar of the programme‘s External Reference Group of policy advisors on 24
July 2009. The key research question agreed at the seminar was the following:
Under our current systems, how can young people (and their advisors) access reliable
and comprehensive information (data and analysis) about employment opportunities,
as they make their education choices, paying particular attention to the roles of:

Universities;

Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics; and

Industry Training Organisations?
The primary research method was to conduct semi-structured interviews with key informants
from different parts of the country, including people from the above three sectors, people
from employer groups, and people from relevant government agencies. The interviews took
place between 10 September and 2 December 2009. In most cases the interview was held at
the participant‘s place of work, although one was held at the participant‘s home, two were
held in the author‘s office, one was held in a public café, one was held by telephone, and one
was held at a conference.
Participants were provided with a two page document providing background on the research
and a series of nine general questions that would be used to structure the interview. This
document is reproduced as Appendix 1 of this report. It included a statement that: ‗The report
will list the names of the people who agree for an interview (unless anonymity is requested),
but nothing from the interviews will be published that could identify the person or his or her
institution.‘ No one did request anonymity, and the list of participants is provided in
Appendix 2. In total, 41 people gave of their time in 30 interviews.
Table 2
Categories of Interviews
Category
Number
Employer Groups
6
Industry Training Organisations (ITOs)
9
Universities
6
Institutes of Technology or Polytechnics (ITPs)
5
Central or Local Government
4
TOTAL INTERVIEWS
30
4
eel
Table 2 presents the distribution of the interviews among the five major sites for employer-led
channels. There were six interviews with employer groups; nine interviews with industry
training organisations (ITOs); six interviews with universities; five interviews with institutes
of technology or polytechnics (ITPs); and four interviews with organisations from central or
local government. Figure 2 presents the geographical distribution of the interviews. One-third
of the interviews were from people located in the South Island, and two-thirds were in the
North Island. The largest groups were from Auckland, Wellington and Otago (17 per cent
each).
Figure 2
Geographical Distribution of the Interviews
Southland
6%
Auckland
17%
Otago
17%
Manukau
13%
Canterbury
10%
Waikato
13%
Wellington
17%
BoP
7%
Each interview typically lasted between 30 and 45 minutes. The author took extensive written
notes during the interview, but the interview was not taped. The written notes were coded into
127 different points, which were then categorised under 16 headings. The author prepared a
table showing how many interviews from each of the categories in table 2 had made a
comment on each of the 127 different points. This analysis was presented to a research
workshop of the whole EEL research group held 16-18 February 2010. Drawing on feedback
from that workshop, the headings were further refined by the author, which produced the
structure of this report.
The EEL research programme approaches research validity in terms of Cresswell and Miller‘s
(2000) concept of the ‗lens of the researcher, lens of the research participants, and lens of
people external to the research‘ (Dalziel et al, 2007, p. 7). This report analyses the interview
material through the lens of the research leader for the employer-led channels component of
5
eel
the larger project, with input from other members of the research team. This report will be
sent to all those who took part in an interview with an invitation to provide comments and
other feedback on its content. This accountability is to enhance validity through the lens of the
research participants. The themes of the research were presented to a workshop of public
policy advisors on the research programme‘s external reference group in June 2010 and this
report will be sent to a small group of international experts who have agreed to help monitor
the project. These exercises address validity through the lens of people external to the
research.
6
eel
Chapter 2
The Employer Landscape
It is possible to overstate the separate character of employers in the way young people are
helped to make effective education employment linkages. Employers are also parents,
grandparents, aunties, uncles and family friends. Boards of trustees for schools often include
members with links into the business community. Employers live in regional communities,
and some are strongly connected with Māori and Pasifika communities. Through these local
family and community networks, individual employers are helping individual students learn
about the world of work and how its features might influence their education choices. In this
research programme, however, the aim is to go beyond such individual encounters to explore
how formal support systems can best help young New Zealanders make good education
employment linkages to benefit themselves, their communities, and the national economy. In
the employer-led theme of the programme, the aim is to research and deliver new knowledge
about systems for conveying the needs of employers to young New Zealanders, in order to
improve education employment linkages (Dalziel et al, 2007).
It is widely recognised that a feature of the employer landscape in New Zealand is that the
country‘s businesses are predominantly small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs (Long
et al, 2000; Coetzer, 2002; Vaughan, 2002; Fraser, 2005; TEC, 2005; Coetzer, 2007; Coetzer
et al, 2007; Massey and Ingley, 2007; Dalziel, 2010b and 2010c). Two-thirds of New Zealand
enterprises have zero employees, and almost two thirds of the remaining businesses that do
employ staff have no more than five employees (MED, 2009). Table 3 presents data on the
distribution of employing enterprises as at February 2008 – more than 90 per cent employ
between 1 and 19 employees, and only 1.4 per cent employ 100 staff or more.
Table 3 Number of Employing Enterprises by Number of Employees, February 2008
Employee
Size Group
Percentage of All
Enterprises with
Employees
Number of
Enterprises
Cumulative
Percentage
1-5
100,459
66.2%
66.2%
6-9
20,526
13.5%
79.8%
10-19
16,771
11.1%
90.8%
20-49
9,104
6.0%
96.8%
50-99
2,579
1.7%
98.5%
100-499
1,859
1.2%
99.8%
340
0.2%
100.0%
151,638
100%
500+
TOTAL
Source: MED (2009, p. 9).
7
eel
This is significant. If employer-led channels are to be effective, they must begin with a
mechanism for collecting information from employers, most of whom are managers of small
businesses with fewer than six employees. Recognising this, standard practice in New
Zealand since the 1940s has been for career information on industries to be collected and
distributed by a government agency. This is now the responsibility of Career Services, which
describes itself as a government organisation to provide all people living in New Zealand with
access to the best careers information, advice and guidance to achieve their life goals
(www.careers.govt.nz). This includes promoting the importance of lifelong career planning.
The Career Services website currently publishes more than 70 profiles on New Zealand
industries, including trends, facts and statistics, training information, and the sorts of jobs
people do (see http://www2.careers.govt.nz/job_interest_areas.html).
The peak organisation for employers is Business New Zealand (www.businessnz.org.nz). It
has been concerned for several years to strengthen relationships between education and
business, driven in part by the serious skills shortages that emerged in many sectors before the
current recession (Dalziel, 2007). The following extract from Chief Executive of Business
New Zealand illustrates this concern (O‘Reilly, 2006, p. 3):
In many cases, schools and local business have a great relationship. I‘ve seen many examples
around the country and I congratulate them on what they have achieved. My concern is that not
all schools and business enjoy such engagement. Engagement is not systematic across the board.
The connections are often dependent on the individuals involved and these linkages are too
important to be left to rely on personalities. I would like to see a process by which we could
draw out the elements that contribute to successful engagement between a school and local
enterprise and then take those lessons nationally.
Business New Zealand is sustained by four regional organisations: The Employers‘ and
Manufacturers‘ Association (Northern); the Employers‘ and Manufacturers‘ Association
(Central); the Canterbury Employers‘ Chamber of Commerce; and the Otago-Southland
Employers‘ Association. Throughout New Zealand there are a large number of industrial
associations, ranging from large national organisations such as Federated Farmers of New
Zealand to small organisations of local employers. Tertiary education organisations have
begun to use these associations to provide feedback on their education programmes. This is
typically achieved by asking them to nominate a representative on an employers‘ reference
group, often set up at the faculty level but increasingly at the level of individual programmes.
These groups meet at least once a year to consider how faculty programmes might better
address local employer needs.
An industry in New Zealand is able to create an Industry Training Organisation (ITO)
recognised under the Industry Training Act 1992. There are currently 39 ITOs in New
Zealand, which are collectively represented on policy issues by the Industry Training
Federation (ITF; see www.itf.org.nz). Section 6 of the Act defines four roles for an ITO:
(a) Set for the industry in respect of which the organisation wishes to be recognised (or that
industry and the other industry or industries concerned) skill standards that the
qualifications authority is likely to be prepared to register; and
(b) develop arrangements for the delivery of industry training that will enable trainees to attain
those standards, including arrangements (being arrangements likely to be acceptable to the
qualifications authority) for—
(i) The monitoring of the training so as to ensure that it enables trainees to attain those
standards; and
8
eel
(ii) The assessing of trainees and of the extent to which they have in fact attained those
standards ; and
(c) provide leadership within the industry on matters relating to skill and training needs by—
(i) identifying current and future skill needs; and
(ii) developing strategic training plans to assist the industry to meet those needs; and
(iii) promoting training that will meet those needs to employers and employees; and
(d) develop arrangements for the collective representation of employees in the governance of
the organisation.
Because industry training is defined in the Act as ‗systematic training, provided for people
employed in an industry‘ (emphasis added), ITOs originally paid little attention to schools and
their students in order to focus on workers in industry employment. In recent years, this
approach has changed as many ITOs have recognised that skills leadership includes engaging
with schools to ensure that students are aware of industry training options that might become
part of their learning and career pathways. In a recent publication, for example, the Industry
Training Federation (ITF, 2010, p. 6) has highlighted that working with schools and school
students is an area where ITOs, with government support, could deliver further value by:
 Supporting the connection of schools with industry and sectors.
 Supporting secondary students‘ transitions to tertiary study and work, including providing
information about study and work options.
 Developing qualifications that provide vocational education and training pathways for
secondary students.
 Developing customised programmes and resources for secondary students, and expanding
existing programmes.
Thus, there has been a movement towards greater connections between employer groups and
education institutions, both at the secondary and the tertiary level. Each of the following
chapters draws on material obtained in the key informant interviews to examine different
parts of employer-led channels. The focus of the EEL research programme is on the young
person in transition, and so chapter 3 begins the discussion by reporting on comments that
were made in the interviews about students and career guidance.
9
eel
Chapter 3
Students and Career Guidance
The international literature review carried out by the EEL research team concluded with the
following observation (Higgins et al, 2008, p. 49):
The recent developments described above in the education, sociology, indigenous studies and
economics literatures tend to reinforce each other. At their collective centre is the young person,
conceptualised as a dynamic individual who is continuously constructing self identities in
diverse contexts, discovering and developing their personal abilities, making purposeful choices
that are influenced by perceived and actual social, economic and cultural constraints, and
engaging with education and employment systems in their schools, in their workplaces, in their
local communities and in their countries.
People interviewed for this project often echoed this placing of the young person at the centre
of the issue, expressed in different ways. Five participants from education providers and the
government sector argued strongly that career guidance should aim to help young people
discover and develop their whole person, and not simply vocational or professional skills.
Four of the participants drawn from employer groups commented that any initiatives in career
education must be valuable for the students, and there was some concern that education
institutions are sometimes so focused on their financial incentives that they lose sight of
providing quality programmes to young people. Four people mentioned the importance of
pastoral care of students, particularly for young people studying part-time for trades
qualifications (generally not explicitly funded by public training subsidies). Another
emphasised the importance of recognising diversity among young people and being sensitive
about different choices made by each individual.
There was a constant theme throughout the interviews expressing concern about those young
people who become disengaged from education and skills development in their early teens.
This is a longstanding policy concern; see, for example, OECD (2008, pp. 9-10). The general
perception was that a significant number of young New Zealanders find that their learning
environment at school does not cater well to their particular abilities and potential, and this
contributes to their disengagement from learning. Addressing this outcome would reduce
wasted talent and produce lots of positive externalities in helping teenagers ‗find their feet‘. In
such cases, it was suggested that blurring the distinction between school and work could be
very beneficial, particularly through the use in schools of ‗context-oriented‘ or ‗authentic‘
learning relevant to employment prospects. It was further suggested that this should not be a
residual option for students identified as not coping in the classroom, but rather should be
regarded as part of the range of positive choices open to all students.
In this context, there was general support that students can benefit from making direct links
with employers, or learning about employer expectations, early in their secondary and tertiary
studies. Some tertiary education providers reported that they arrange for employers to speak
to their first-year classes for this purpose. Such links can help motivate study and encourage
independent learning based on good planning, and may also help students to consider what
activities they might engage in outside their studies in order to develop diverse skills that are
valuable for their career aspirations.
10
eel
Two general sets of comments were made about young people in transition by participants
from across the spectrum of employers, industry training organisations, universities and
institutes of polytechnics. The first set emphasised the importance of stimulating young
people to explore their potential capabilities and to imagine a range of different possibilities
for their future pathways in education, employment and other activities. This was presented as
an essential element of professional career advice, often with an additional comment that the
earlier the better. Several respondents claimed that many secondary students in New Zealand
miss out on this step either because their advisers are not professionally trained in career
advice or because the advisers work in an environment that is weighted towards a particular
pathway (e.g. university education) at the expense of others (e.g. education in the trades).
The second set of general comments emphasised the importance of preparing trustworthy
career education resources targeted at young people, particularly with the aim of helping
young persons to consider a full range of different options. The Career Services website at
www.careers.org.nz was cited by many respondents as an excellent example. Some of the
people interviewed were concerned that young people in secondary schools can receive a
large amount of material that is essentially marketing by tertiary education providers, rather
than a balanced account of the full picture. Related to this concern was a complaint that career
expos tend to be dominated by educators. Others were not so worried by this concern, arguing
for example that young people understand that marketing is marketing. This contrary view
tended to suggest that it is important for students to search out a range of different sources of
information about their options. Several respondents from industry training organisations and
from institutes of technology advised that they had introduced recent initiatives to improve
the quality of their marketing into schools.
Three participants in the study suggested that a large number of young people leave school
with no appreciation of the potential value of good professional career advice and guidance. It
was suggested that there is an historical reason for this. Students who intend to pursue a
career such as medicine, engineering, science or law need to plan their course of study
carefully, and so it is generally accepted that the bright students at school need career advice.
The National Administration Guidelines for schools in New Zealand require schools to pay
‗particular emphasis on specific career guidance for those students who have been identified
by the school as being at risk of leaving school unprepared for the transition to the workplace
or further education/training‘ (MoE, 2009a, NAG 1f), and so it is generally accepted that
struggling students at school need career advice. As a consequence, it was suggested that
many students in the middle of the scholastic range regard themselves as neither struggling
nor very bright, and so therefore think they do not need career guidance. There was a
perception reported in some of the interviews that an under-resourced careers office in a
school may reinforce this view by devoting little time to this ‗middle group‘ of students each
year.
The danger is that students who do not value career guidance may ‗drift‘ into a course of
study without developing effective career management skills and with little contact with
employers. Some of these students will not seek career advice until late in their studies, at
which point they may regret the options they had not thought to consider. Two interviewees
from the tertiary education sector commented that students who at the end of their study come
to regret their education choices typically did not make those choices for themselves, but were
steered into a particular path by family, teachers, friends or unrepresentative experiences in
part-time work while still at school. Others commented that a structured gap year between
secondary and tertiary education may be better than simply drifting into further study.
11
eel
Consequently, a strong theme to come through the interviews was the suggestion that personal
career education is important for everyone. Career education is different from career advice or
guidance; see the definitions in chapter 6 below. It involves the young person learning career
management skills, sometimes called developing career literacy, or career maturity. These
skills include knowing how to judge the reliability of careers material and how to access
independent advice when it is needed. They include knowing the importance of revisiting
education choices early in a course of study, and not simply drifting or becoming disengaged
if the course is discovered to not match the person‘s talents. They include an ability to make
decisions that consider long-term aspirations as well as short-term goals.
12
eel
Chapter 4
Employers and Industry Training Organisations
Chapter 2 noted that there has been a movement towards greater connections between
employer groups and education institutions. There was a wide range of opinions expressed
about the willingness of employers to be involved in career education. Starting at the positive
end of this range, nine participants stated that employers are generally keen to be involved,
although this view was sometimes qualified by adding a phrase such as ‗in our small or rural
community‘. At the other end of the range, five participants reported that in their experience
employers are typically reluctant or unable to be involved, especially when a fragmented
industry is comprised of mostly small to medium-sized enterprises.
Eight participants expressed a view somewhere between the two ends of the range, suggesting
that employers will become involved if (a) they are provided with a reason for involvement,
and (b) their time is used efficiently with clear boundaries on the extent of their commitment.
Examples of reasons to be involved include: raising the profile of their industry/business
among students; having first access to an institution‘s talented graduates; and to address
persistent or projected skill shortages in their workplace.
Half of the interviews (15 out of 30) included comments that were supportive of more links or
stronger partnerships between secondary schools and local employers, with some being
particularly forceful in their opinion that this would be valuable for students (and for their
transition pathways) and for the involved employers. These advocates generally recognised
that employers and educators ‗speak different languages‘ and have different needs and
expectations. Six of the interviewees suggested that ‗brokered relationships‘ would therefore
work best, in which a specialist consultant or organisation ensures that any initiatives
successfully promote the objectives of everyone involved.
A New Zealand example of a system for brokered school-employer relationships is ‗The
EDAL Way‘, recipient of the 2004 International Global Best Award, awarded by the
International Partnership Network in the United Kingdom (see www.the-edal-way.co.nz/).
This is a six stage relationship development process for business and education that assists
schools and businesses to research and develop relationships with each other in a way that
ensures value for both the company and the school.
Another New Zealand example is the INSTEP programme operated by Priority One, which is
the economic development agency covering Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty (see
www.priorityone.co.nz/about_western_bay_of_plenty/INSTEP.asp). The INSTEP programme
describes itself as providing valuable links between business and education and exposes local
secondary school students, their teachers, parents and principals to examples of successful
business practice within its region. It goes on to explain that its aim is to ensure students
become motivated and inspired to achieve their entrepreneurial goals through seeing
relevance in what they learn at school, and expanding their options before leaving school. The
programme is overseen by a steering group of employers and educators that meets once a year
to guide the annual plan. The coordinator is responsible for maintaining connections with
businesses, employer groups, local government, school principals, careers advisors, subject
teachers and individual students to organise a series of events and networks each year.
13
eel
A third New Zealand example is the City of Manukau Education Trust (COMET; see its
website at www.comet.org.nz). COMET was established in 1999 by Manukau City Council as
a charitable trust. It has a number of strategic themes, including: working together to support
schools; working together so that young people have effective and supported transitions from
school; and business and schools working together. In 2009, COMET operated three specific
programmes under the third of those themes: a Principal For A Day event; six pilot projects
with schools in Manukau funded under the government‘s Education for Enterprise (E4E)
programme, and the COMET Authentic Learning Initiative to connect teachers and
curriculum leaders in schools into opportunities to partner with a business or community
organisation to design learning opportunities for students. At the time of writing this report,
COMET is working on establishing a Centre for School-Business Relationships.
Several interviews gave examples of existing programmes for linking employers and schools.
Twelve people commented that Gateway (a government funded initiative to support Years 1113 students undertaking learning and assessment in the workplace; see TEC, 2010) is a good
programme. Schools often organise visits by groups of their students to employers (e.g. work
choice days; ‗Outstanding in the Field‘ farm days; organised visits to business clusters; or
industry taster days) or invite visits from employers to relevant classes. As noted above, some
were concerned that careers expos tend to be dominated by educators, but it was also
mentioned that some schools and regions are organising expos led by business or industry
sectors.
Five interviews suggested that a school might set up an advisory committee of its local
employers, or host a school breakfast for this group, to strengthen linkages with the school‘s
business community. Positive mention was made of the ‗Principal for a Day‘ scheme in which
a business leader shadows a school principal for a day (see, for example, the COMET day at
www.comet.org.nz/wawcs0143754/ln-principal-for-a-day.html, and a Waikato example can
be seen at www.smartwaikato.co.nz/page/10-a-day-as-principal).
Chapter 2 noted that Industry Training Organisations (ITOs) are created by industry to
provide leadership on matters relating to skill and training needs. Consequently, people in the
interviews commented that there are generally no serious issues about education employment
linkages for people who are undergoing training under ITO supervision. The qualifications
are intended to meet industry needs, and the trainees are in employment (and so connected
directly to employers). People who ask an ITO about career pathways in a sector can be
referred to industry employers, or their websites, for reliable information and advice.
There is one major caveat to this positive assessment, however, which concerns how young
people in schools obtain information about skills-based career opportunities in the industries
covered by ITOs. In some sectors, for example, employers are reluctant to employ young
people straight from school, and so there may be no natural pathway for a young person to
learn about the sector while at school, especially if the people in the school‘s careers office
are also unfamiliar with training and employment opportunities in the sector. All of the
interviews with people in the ITO sector described major investments by ITOs in preparing
resources and programmes for secondary schools. Almost all of these descriptions were
accompanied by a comment that this work receives no direct funding from government.
At the most general level, ITOs have prepared promotional material on their industry for
distribution in schools (including assisting Career Services with information for its website
and participating in events like the annual conference of the Careers Advisors and Transition
Educations Association Aotearoa). In some cases, this material has been prepared because
14
eel
industry leaders have been concerned that students, parents and teachers have a poor
understanding of the range of opportunities available to skilled people within the industry.
This material is not subject to formal quality assurance, but is overseen by industry leaders
whose reputations would be affected if the material included misleading claims. One
participant commented that his ITO has to be careful not to overpromise to school students
since firms in its industry typically do not employ school leavers directly.
Some ITOs have adopted a brokering role in helping schools organise contacts with local
industries. The Electrotechnology Industry Training Organisation (ETITO), for example, has
set up Bright Sparks, which is a virtual on-line community of about 2000 school students
supported by knowledgeable mentors from industry (see www.brightsparks.org.nz/). This
initiative includes the annual Bright Sparks competition ‗to develop those students who are
destined to be our nation‘s future engineers, electricians and programmers while they‘re still
in school‘. In 2009 the ETITO coordinated a day in Christchurch in which six schools
nominated four students from their year 12 class to visit two workplaces where they were
involved in some practical hands-on activities and shared discussions over lunch.
Another example is OASIS (Offering Assistance to Students in School) operated by the Hotel
Hospitality Standards Institute to show students the potential of a career in the hospitality
industry. Under this programme, schools can obtain advice and assistance on getting in touch
with local hospitality professionals and modern apprentices who can provide students with an
insight into employment opportunities and what goes into running a successful business.
At a more detailed level, ITOs have begun developing unit standards suitable for delivery by
secondary schools and have set up processes for delivering and moderating these standards.
The New Zealand Qualifications Authority reports that ITOs are responsible for about twothirds of the standards on the National Qualifications Framework, but the movement into
designing standards for delivery in schools is relatively recent.
In some cases, individual ITOs have combined in order to produce materials for schools. An
outstanding example is the Built Environment Training Alliance (BETA), comprised of the
Building and Construction ITO, the Creative Trades ITO, the New Zealand Flooring ITO,
InfraTrain (ITO for the infrastructure industries), the Joinery ITO, and the Plumbing,
Gasfitting, Drainlaying and Roofing ITO. BETA has created the BConstructive programme,
which involves two qualifications that can be offered at years 11 and 12 in schools providing
students with the skills and knowledge to springboard into any career in the construction
industry (see www.bconstructive.co.nz/). Five participants in the interviews reported that pretrades courses of this type are generally becoming more important in some career pathways,
particularly where it is difficult to find employment directly from school. There was a
suggestion that ITOs connected to the primary sector might combine to produce suitable
learning and marketing material for school students.
15
eel
Chapter 5
Universities and Institutes of Technology or Polytechnics
The New Zealand tertiary education system includes eight universities (Auckland University
of Technology, Lincoln University, Massey University, University of Auckland, University of
Canterbury, University of Otago, University of Waikato and Victoria University of
Wellington) and twenty institutes of technology or polytechnics (Aoraki Polytechnic, Bay of
Plenty Polytechnic, Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, Eastern Institute of
Technology, Manukau Institute of Technology, Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology,
Northland Polytechnic, Open Polytechnic, Otago Polytechnic, Southern Institute of
Technology, Tai Poutini Polytechnic, Tairawhiti Polytechnic, Telford Rural Polytechnic,
Unitec New Zealand, Universal College of Learning, Waiariki Institute of Technology,
Waikato Institute of Technology, Wellington Institute of Technology, Western Institute of
Technology Taranaki and Whitireia Community Polytechnic).
These public institutions play two important roles in employer-led channels for assisting
young people make good education-employment linkages. First, they devote considerable
human and financial resources to providing material to potential recruits into their education
programmes. This includes presentations in schools, interviews with individuals, provision of
written and audio-visual material, dedicated webpages and hosting of campus visits. Second,
these institutions provide career education and career guidance services to students enrolled in
their courses. These services are available to students at any stage, but there is often a
particular demand from students in their final year of study or immediately after graduation as
they search for employment related to their new qualification.
A question addressed in the interviews was whether information distributed by these tertiary
institutions to prospective students (in printed give-away material or on the institution‘s
website) undergoes any formal quality assurance process. The answer is generally not. The
contents are prepared on the advice of professional people (typically the academic staff
involved in the programme being marketed) and so are generally considered by the
recruitment offices to be reliable. Participants commented that if an error was pointed out to
them, the mistake would be immediately corrected since the reputation of the institution
depends among other things on the quality of its material.
An innovative web-based programme by the University of Otago seeks to stimulate the
imagination of prospective students to consider the full range of programmes available at the
University. Called Otago Choice, it invites the user to answer a number of binary questions
about their skills and interests and then uses an algorithm designed by one of its staff
members (see Hanson and Ombler, 2009) to rank 105 Bachelor degree subjects offered at the
university according to how well they match those skills and interests.
The people interviewed from recruitment offices confirmed that they maintain very strong
links with careers offices in secondary schools, sometime using former students of a school
now enrolled in the tertiary institution to help connect with the next cohort of school leavers.
These links tend to be regional for the institutes of technology and national for the
universities. The recruitment officers were clear that they do not attempt to offer career advice
or course advice to prospective students. Rather, their role is to market programmes as best
they can, with some courses (especially the professional courses) being easier to market than
16
eel
others. One participant thought there may be some ‗gilding of the lily‘ in the marketing.
Printed give-away material is necessarily summary in nature, and does not aim to provide indepth information. As noted earlier, one person reported that marketing material is easily
recognised as such by young people. If a potential student asks for career advice, he or she is
referred to the institution‘s careers office, since that is where the qualified advisors reside.
Once a student arrives at the institution and begins a course of study, there are four key
moments at which they may have some contact with the institution‘s careers office. First, the
careers office will be involved in orientation events associated with welcoming the new
student. The office may host seminars on aspects of career education, and will distribute
material on the services that it can provide to any student during their studies. This typically
includes a sequence of career related workshops on topics such as preparing a CV or
presenting well in an interview, plus opportunities for one-on-one career advice and guidance.
In some institutions, the careers office will also arrange for visits from local business people
to speak to first-year students about employment opportunities associated with their course.
Second, students who arrive at an institution may learn early in their studies that the education
choice they made on enrolment needs revisiting. One person suggested, for example, that
many students who are attracted to enrol in accounting discover in the first semester that this
subject does not suit their skills or interests, contributing to a very high failure rate in the firstyear accounting course. Such students are strongly encouraged to speak to the careers office
so that they can go through a formal process of career planning to search for a better match in
their education choices. In some institutions, students are invited with a broadcast email in the
first weeks of their study to reflect on whether they are in the right programme, and to seek
advice if they have any doubts. This is likely to become more common as public funding
begins to place greater emphasis on completions rather than enrolments.
Third, during the programme of study, there may be requirements for students to participate in
some form of work-based learning (WBL). This can range from a specified period of practical
work experience through to a module in the programme that has formal learning objectives
and assessment but which takes place off-campus in a workplace. In both cases, the careers
office may be involved in coordinating the WBL programme and managing the partnership
between the education institution and the participating employers.
Fourth, students who are moving towards the end of their course may seek assistance from the
careers office in preparing for employment. The careers office will host employer recruitment
visits to the campus, and will give students access to information about job vacancies. Seven
of New Zealand‘s eight universities use a common web-based portal for this latter purpose
(https://nzunicareerhub.ac.nz/). Since the student is about to graduate, the focus of individual
interviews with careers staff tends to be on how to search for employment opportunities that
match the student‘s new qualification. The assistance provided by the careers office may
continue after the student has left the institution.
The functions described in the previous paragraphs mean that the careers office is often a
strategic asset in a tertiary education institution‘s portfolio of services. To be effective, the
office must be equipped to:

maintain a network of strong relationships with regional and national employers;

manage processes and events for connecting employers and students; and

offer professional career advice, guidance and education to students.
17
eel
People interviewed from these offices for this project generally considered that they are
equipped for these tasks, although two reported that they were working on improving their
information technology systems for managing the institution‘s relationships with employers.
In all cases, staff providing career guidance are professionally qualified and affiliated with a
professional body (typically the Career Development Association of New Zealand; see
http://www.cdanz.org.nz/). Several people emphasised that this is important, since their
professional ethical standards mean that they are required to provide impartial advice to
clients that is not influenced by any marketing goals of their institution (or of a particular
programme within the institution). This is understood and appreciated by their student clients,
who sometimes report that their academic course advisors seem unwilling to present a full
range of options. A research project based on 49 focus groups involving 419 student
participants by the Tertiary Education Commission has recently reported a similar finding
(TEC, 2009, p. 6):
Careers advisors were a commonly accessed source of information on tertiary education
options. Some students said they were more trusting of advice from independent careers
advisors because they did not promote specific programmes or providers. Their ability to
explain clear pathways both within tertiary education and from education to employment was
deemed particularly valuable.
The interviews revealed four areas where it was suggested there is potential for systematic
improvements. The first area concerns curriculum design. Many tertiary institutions now have
employer advisory boards (or similar title) that are invited to provide feedback on a study
programme‘s contents and performance. Nevertheless, an institution‘s careers office builds up
a lot of experience through its networks in understanding employer expectations that would
be valuable in designing education and training programmes. It was therefore suggested that
institutions could make more use of this experience and those networks than typically
happens at present, to strengthen feedback from employers to educators.
The second area concerns the attitude of students to career education when they arrive for
tertiary education. It was suggested that this is less of an issue in institutes of technology and
polytechnics, since most of their students enrol because they want to either develop or change
their current career path. Also a relatively small group of their enrolments come directly from
school. In universities, students arrive in order to continue ‗higher education‘ (to use one of
its traditional names) and a significant number of these can ‗drift‘ into their course of study
without realising the value of thinking about developing effective career management skills
(see the wider discussion in chapter 3 above). This does not mean to suggest that tertiary
education should always be employment-focused, but careers advisors in the interviews did
say that some of their clients do later regret the time it took for them to seek career guidance
or to learn techniques for framing their career choices.
The third area concerns the tracking of the achievements of different programmes in preparing
their graduates for employment. Marketing material often includes examples of high profile
graduates that serve as a model for others to emulate, but it is rare for further information to
be provided on how representative these examples are of all graduate experience. The
interviews included comments ranging from ‗all entrants in this programme are given a
guarantee that they will find employment at its conclusion‘ to ‗large numbers of students in
this programme are being trained for no job‘. Four people suggested that there should be
published data on completion rates and graduate outcomes for tertiary education institutions
(such as the ‗employability performance indicator‘ used with some controversy in the United
Kingdom) so that potential students can incorporate this information in making their choices.
18
eel
The fourth area concerns perceptions that career advice given to young people in New
Zealand (both formal guidance by careers advisors and informal advice by family and friends)
generally undervalues trades education in favour of university education. This concern was
specifically raised by twelve people (representing all five categories in table 2 on page 4) in
the context of career advice in secondary schools. The above cited research project by the
Tertiary Education Commission also supported this finding (TEC, 2009, p. 6):
Some students felt that schools and careers advisors over-emphasised the option of university
study and needed to provide more information about other forms of tertiary education. Some of
these students mentioned that schools and careers advisors needed to encourage students to
participate in the tertiary education suited to their learning style and appropriate to their
pathways from secondary school. Many participants undertaking industry and modern
apprenticeship training learned about training options through their employer or other students
and felt there needed to be better promotion of the full range of available study options.
The discussions suggested that four factors have contributed to this situation. First, careers
advisors and secondary school teachers are professionally educated and so their experience is
generally weighted towards university education. Second, parents of the current generation
lived through the post-1984 economic reforms that had a strong adverse impact on workers
employed in the trades. Third, there is a perception that universities have had bigger budgets
and been much more successful that institutes of technology or polytechnics in marketing
their programmes through the careers offices in secondary schools. Fourth, it was suggested
that national economic strategies emphasising ‗the knowledge economy‘ have tended to focus
more on intellectual innovations than on the rewards that are available to innovative people
skilled in the trades, with the result that many schools have come to regard their percentage of
school leavers going on to university as an implicit key performance indicator.
There have been some initiatives to address this perceived imbalance in career advice. A
number of regional communities, for example, organise an annual ceremony in which civic
and business leaders recognise and celebrate young people who have completed a trade
qualification. Several people from the ITO sector mentioned the Inzone bus (see
www.inzone.co.nz/), which is a roadshow travelling around New Zealand schools to offer
students access to high-tech audio-visual material on career opportunities in the trades. Two
participants commented that schools are now recognising the value of trades education more
than was the case a decade ago. At the national level, there are moves to allow merit and
excellence to be recognised for school students studying what are currently offered only as
unit standards related to the trades.
19
eel
Chapter 6
Secondary Schools and Career Education
It is important to emphasise that the ‗employer-led channels‘ theme of this research did not
incorporate interviews with key informants from school communities. Nevertheless, almost
all participants in this part of the research reported significant dealings with schools either
directly or with young people soon after they leave school. Consequently the interviews
provided valuable feedback on how career education in secondary schools is perceived by
outsiders closely involved in helping young people in transition.
The first point to make is that the interviews were replete with examples of recent initiatives
in schools that participants described as exciting and valuable for students. The development
of unit standards for trades education, the development of school-business partnerships for
project-based learning, the investment by some schools in specialist education facilities (tool
making, fabricating, construction, hospitality, primary sector, etc.), the hosting of employerled careers expos and the development of trades academies in schools were examples
favourably mentioned by three or more people. There were several general statements
commenting that careers advisors in schools are doing okay in what is a difficult job, and are
typically enthusiastic about cooperating in projects that they think will benefit their students
(see also Vaughan and Gardiner, 2007, p. 82).
Participants in the interviews recognised the problem of ‗information overload‘ in schools,
with some adding that this makes it difficult to get their particular message across to students.
This is a sensitive issue; one participant commented that it is not the role of a careers office in
school to become a quasi recruitment agency for local employers, ITOs or tertiary educators.
Participants reported that they were aware they need to provide different resources for
different parts of school communities, such as the principal, heads of departments, subject
teachers, the careers office, parents of students and the students themselves.
People spoke highly of some schools where the careers office is a strong team of qualified
professionals offering a range of skills and services to their students, with full support from
the principal. There was also a strong theme running through the interviews, however, that not
all secondary students have valuable experiences with their careers office. The most common
explanation was that it is impossible for any individual careers advisor to know everything,
and so counsellors who rely on their personal knowledge to give advice will not be able to
introduce their students to the full range of available options.
Possible ways to address this issue can be grouped into two types of response. The first group
of responses suggested that careers offices in schools need more resources that are ring-fenced
for providing better career advice and guidance. Three people suggested, for example, that
schools should be funded to employ a Vocational Dean or some equivalent title to manage the
full range of services associated with education employment linkages in the school. One
person suggested a national scheme for funding short-term teacher placements in industry.
Another suggested more professional development opportunities for careers staff. Nine people
commented very favourably on Career Services as an important resource that could be more
used in schools (particularly their 0800 number). There were also some favourable mentions
of recent national programmes such as Gateway, STAR, Education for Enterprise (E4E) and
Creating Pathways and Building Lives (CPaBL).
20
eel
The second group of responses raised a more fundamental critique of the role of careers
offices in the New Zealand education system. The role is set out in National Administration
Guidelines (NAG) for school administration, which state that each board of trustees is
required, among other things, to (MoE, 2009a, NAG 1f):
provide appropriate career education and guidance for all students in year 7 and above, with a
particular emphasis on specific career guidance for those students who have been identified by
the school as being at risk of leaving school unprepared for the transition to the workplace or
further education/training.
The NAG indicates that schools must provide career education and career guidance, but these
are two very different tasks. This is explained in the Ministry of Education‘s advice and
support to schools (MoE, 2009b, p. 6; see also McMahon, 2004, pp. 56-57 for similar
definitions using Australian sources):
A career is the sequence and variety of work roles, paid and unpaid, that a person undertakes
throughout a lifetime. More broadly, ‗career‘ embraces life roles in the home and the
community, leisure activities, learning and work. Work, learning and life, though sometimes
distinct, are closely intertwined. Everyone has a career.
Career education consists of planned, progressive learning experiences that help students
develop career management competencies that will assist them to manage their lives.
Career guidance provides individualised interactions to help students move from a general
understanding of life and work to a specific understanding of the life, learning and work options
that are open to them. It helps individuals or small groups to better understand themselves and
their needs, confront challenges, resolve conflicts, develop new perspectives and make progress.
Career guidance is carried out by staff with specialist training. This may include deans and
teachers providing pastoral care.
Against this background, some participants in the interviews argued that it is inappropriate for
a person in a public institution dealing with young people to offer career guidance if he or she
is not qualified or not accredited as a professional counsellor. These participants commented
that careers advisors in tertiary institutions, in ACC and in Career Services are required to be
qualified (or to be in the process of gaining a qualification) and affiliated to a professional
organisation, and this same standard should be applied in schools. In particular, it was argued
that a person who is qualified and accredited as a teacher but not as a careers counsellor
should be restricted to providing or facilitating career education. Note that the MoE (2009b)
advice above recommends that career guidance be carried out by staff ‗with specialist
training‘. One person in the interviews argued strongly that this principle should be enshrined
in statute to protect school students from well-intentioned but unqualified staff giving them
unaccountable advice.
There was further discussion about how a secondary school careers office might facilitate
career education in schools, centred on the idea that career education should be embedded in
the curriculum. This idea is also developed in a recent discussion paper published by Career
Services (Hodgetts, 2009). In this model, a careers office helps subject teachers include
career-relevant material in their teaching (the science teacher might give an assignment on
science careers), or include projects designed in collaboration with local employers. Staff in
the careers office and subject teachers would focus on helping students to learn how they
themselves can access and assess reliable career information and advice, rather than the staff
and teachers attempting to provide that information and advice themselves (unless qualified as
counsellors to do so).
21
eel
In three cases, the participant commented that they consider New Zealand is falling behind
countries like Australia and the United Kingdom on this matter. In the United Kingdom, the
Department for Children, Schools and Families has published Quality Standards for Young
People’s Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG), including the following three standards
(DCSF, 2007, p. 5):
10. Staff providing information, advice and guidance are appropriately qualified, work to
relevant professional standards and receive continuing professional development.
11. Information, advice and guidance services are regularly and systematically monitored,
reviewed and evaluated, and actions are taken to improve services in response to the
findings.
12. Processes for commissioning impartial information, advice and guidance services are
effective and result in services that meet the needs of parents/carers and young people.
In Australia, the Federal Government has been involved in initiatives to strengthen the
professionalism of career development practitioners for nearly a decade (McMahon, 2004). A
lengthy consultation commissioned through the Career Industry Council of Australia by the
Department of Education, Science and Training produced Professional Standards for
Australian Career Development Practitioners in 2006, revised in 2007, which will be
mandatory from 1 January 2012 (see www.cica.org.au/).
22
eel
Chapter 7
Conclusion
There was considerable support in the interviews for the proposition that New Zealand needs
to create better systems for careers education, and for improving employer-led channels of
information to young people. There is evidence that peak organisations of employers have
become more connected to education institutions, motivated in part by serious skills shortages
that emerged over the last decade. Business New Zealand is engaged in submissions and
media releases on education and training issues (www.businessnz.org.nz/issues/204) and
industry organisations are participating in employer reference groups set up by tertiary
education institutions to provide feedback on their programmes. Industry Training
Organisations, both individually and in sector clusters, are preparing material for secondary
schools, both to raise the profile of their industries among students and their teachers and to
design and moderate unit standards taught within schools.
As noted in chapter 2, the tradition in New Zealand has been for careers information about
industries to be collected and distributed by a government agency, currently Career Services.
In 2007, international expert Professor Tony Watts was invited to undertake a review of this
agency. The opening paragraph of the Watts report described Career Services in glowing
terms (Watts, 2007, p. 9; the reference is to OECD, 2004, p. 102):
Career Services in New Zealand is the most fully-integrated version of a national multi-channel
all-age service in the world that is dedicated to career planning support. The OECD Career
Guidance Policy Review suggested that ‗the priority for policy makers in most OECD countries
should be to create separate, and appropriate, occupational and organisational structures to
deliver career guidance‘. In organisational terms, Career Services represents a prime exemplar
of the recommended approach.
Similarly positive remarks were made by participants in the interviews for this present report,
with no contrary criticisms. Thus there is widespread recognition, nationally and
internationally, that Career Services is a superb source of reliable career information, advice
and guidance. The organisation has set up strong internal systems of quality control, both for
monitoring that it is meeting professional standards in its advice and guidance and for
ensuring that its published material is assessed for quality assurance. A theme throughout the
interviews was that Career Services should be more widely used. Its website is well
patronised, but it was suggested that there is scope for secondary and tertiary students to be
more aware of its careers guidance services through the 0800 222 733 phone number.
More generally, another theme in the interviews was a concern that large numbers of young
New Zealanders undervalue the positive benefits that can be achieved with good quality
career guidance. An explanation for this was a suggestion that careers offices in schools under
pressure due to limited resources may focus their attention on the very bright students (who
need advice on subjects they must study to enter into careers such as medicine, engineering,
science or law) and on students who are struggling (following a requirement in the National
Administration Guidelines issues to boards of trustees). If this is the case, it may have the
unintended consequence that those students who are neither struggling at school nor aspiring
to enter restricted professional courses may come to the view that career guidance would not
be beneficial for themselves.
23
eel
Again more generally, there was a strong theme in the interviews supporting further
development of careers education in secondary and in tertiary education institutions. This
included support for integrating careers education within the curriculum, which is consistent
with recent reflections published by Career Services (Hodgetts, 2009). In the case of
secondary schools, this was often accompanied by a view that people in school careers offices
who are qualified and registered as teachers but not as counsellors should restrict themselves
to facilitating career education, pointing students to professionals (for example, through
Career Services) for guidance where appropriate.
A fourth theme concerned finding ways to better manage relationships between educators and
employers. At the tertiary level, this included reports of projects to develop information
technology solutions for strengthening relationships with local and national businesses. At the
secondary level, it included a proposal that there is an important role for specialist brokers to
ensure that schools and businesses both meet their objectives in agreeing to enter into a
partnership. Examples were provided where this role is performed by an Industry Training
Organisation, an economic development agency, a local government community trust and by
a private consultant.
Finally, a consistent theme in all the interviews was the first one discussed in this report. At
the centre of careers education is the young person at a key stage in his or her personal and
social development. Participants emphasised again and again the importance of supporting
effective systems for helping young people to imagine different possibilities for their career
development, and for helping them to develop skills for exploring and assessing a full range
of opportunities as they construct their own career pathways.
24
eel
References
Coetzer, A. (2002) ‘Employee Learning and Development in the Small Business.’ New
Zealand Journal of Applied Business Research, 1(1), 1-11.
Coetzer, A. (2007) ‘Employee Perceptions of their Workplaces as Learning Environments.’
Journal of Workplace Learning, 19(7), 417-434.
Coetzer, A., L. Lee, K. Lewis, C. Massey and M. Perry (2007) ‘Learning to Thrive or
Learning to Survive? A Report on NZ SMEs and Workplace Learning.’ Palmerston
North: New Zealand Centre for Small and Medium Enterprise Research, Massey
University.
Cresswell, J. W. and D. L. Miller (2000) ‗Determining Validity in Qualitative Inquiry.‘
Theory into Practice, 39, 124-128.
Dalziel, P. (2007) ‗Integrating Employment, Skills and Economic Development: New
Zealand.‘ Report prepared for the OECD LEED Programme. Wellington: Department
of Labour, at www.dol.govt.nz/PDFs/iesed.pdf.
Dalziel, P. (2010a) ‗Developing the Next Generation: Employer-Led Channels for Education
Employment Linkages.‘ Chapter 8 in Jane Bryson (Ed) Beyond Skill: Institutions,
Organisations and Human Capability. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 154-175.
Dalziel, P. (2010b) Leveraging Training and Skills Development in SMEs: New Zealand.
Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Dalziel, P. (2010c) ‗The OECD Research Project on Leveraging Training and Skills
Development in SMEs: The New Zealand Study.‘ Keynote address to the New Zealand
Vocational Education and Training Research Forum, Victoria University of Wellington
14-15 April.
Dalziel, P., J. Higgins, K. Vaughan and H. Phillips (2007) ‗Education Employment Linkages:
An Introduction to the Research Programme.‘ EEL Research Report No. 1. AERU,
Lincoln University. Available at www.eel.org.nz.
DCSF (2007) Quality Standards for Young People’s Information, Advice and Guidance
(IAG). London: Department for Children, Schools and Families at
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/resources-and-practice/IG00253/.
Fraser, T. (2005) Small Businesses and Industry Training: Individualised Approaches that
Work. Wellington: Industry Training Federation.
Hansen, P. and F. Ombler (2009) ‗A New Method for Scoring Multi-attribute Value Models
Using Pairwise Rankings of Alternatives.‘ Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis,
15, 87-107.
Higgins, J., K. Vaughan, H. Phillips and P. Dalziel (2008) ‗Education Employment Linkages:
International Literature Review.‘ EEL Research Report No. 2. AERU, Lincoln
University. Available at www.eel.org.nz.
Hodgetts, I. (2009) Rethinking Career Education in Schools: Foundations for a New Zealand
Framework. Wellington: Career Services.
ITF (2010) Delivering Value: The Contribution of ITOs to New Zealand Vocational
Education and Training. Wellington: Industry Training Federation, at
www.itf.org.nz/user/file/950/Delivering_Value_Apr2010.pdf.
25
eel
Long, M., R. Ryan, G. Burke and S. Hopkins (2000) ‘Enterprise-based Education and
Training: A Literature Review.’ Wellington Ministry of Education.
Massey, C. and C. Ingley (2007) ‘The New Zealand Policy Environment for the Development
of SMEs.’ Palmerston North: New Zealand Centre for Small and Medium Enterprise
Research, Massey University.
McMahon, M. (2004) ―Scoping Paper – Shaping a Career Development Culture: Quality
Standards, Quality Practice, Quality Outcomes.‖ Career Industry Council of Australia,
at www.cica.org.au/index.pl?page=32.
MED (2009) SMEs in New Zealand: Structure and Dynamics 2009. Wellington: Ministry of
Economic Development.
MoE (2009a) National Administration Guidelines. Wellington: Ministry of Education, at
www.minedu.govt.nz.
MoE (2009b) Career Education and Guidance in New Zealand Schools. Wellington: Ministry
of Education.
OECD (2004) Career Guidance and Public Policy: Bridging the Gap. Paris: Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development.
OECD (2008) Jobs for Youth: New Zealand. Country report prepared by Glenda Quintini.
Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
O‘Reilly, P. (2006) ‗Employers and the School System.‘ Address to the National Secondary
Schools Qualifications Conference, Palmerston North, 3 July 2006. Downloaded from
www.businessnz.org.nz/file/1057/060703%20assessment%20speech.pdf.
TEC (2005) The Challenge of Engagement: Involving Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in
Industry Training. Wellington: Tertiary Education Commission.
TEC (2009) Student Choice and Student Experience: The Views of Selected New Zealand
Tertiary Students. Wellington: Tertiary Education Commission, at www.tec.govt.nz/
Documents/Reports%20and%20other%20documents/student-choice-and-studentexperience.pdf.
TEC (2010) Gateway: A Handbook for Schools. Wellington: Tertiary Education Commission,
at www.tec.govt.nz/Documents/Publications/Gateway-Handbook-for-Schools-2010.pdf.
Vaughan, K. (2002), Turning Barriers into Opportunities: A Literature Review on Small to
Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) Engagement with Formal Training. Wellington: New
Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Vaughan, K. and B. Gardiner (2007) Careers Education in New Zealand Schools. Wellington:
New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Vaughan, K., H. Phillips, P. Dalziel and J. Higgins (2009) ‗A Matter of Perspective: Mapping
Education Employment Linkages in Aotearoa New Zealand.‘ EEL Research Report No.
3. AERU, Lincoln University. Available at www.eel.org.nz.
Watts, A. G. (2007) Career Services: A Review in International Perspective. Wellington:
Career Services, at http://www2.careers.govt.nz/review_international_perspective.html.
26
eel
Appendix 1: Information Provided to Participants
Research on Employer-Led Channels for
Supporting Young People Make Good Education Employment Linkages
Introduction
The research programme on education employment linkages is a five-year study funded by
the Foundation for Research Science and Technology. The programme is focused on systems
for supporting young people make good education employment linkages as they move from
school to tertiary education and work. Our work is being guided by an external reference
group made up of representatives from seven government agencies. In our first two years we
have completed an international literature review on this topic and prepared overview maps of
current support systems in New Zealand. Further information can be obtained from our
dedicated website at www.eel.org.nz/.
Employer Led Channels
The research programme is divided into four streams, addressing systems of support in
school-communities, in regional communities, in Māori and Pasifika communities, and in
employer led channels. Professor Paul Dalziel of the AERU at Lincoln University is leading
the research stream on employer led channels, aiming to answer the following question.
Under our current systems, how can young people (and their advisors) access reliable and
comprehensive information about employment opportunities as they make their education
choices, paying particular attention to the roles of Universities, Institutes of Technology
and Polytechnics, and Industry Training Organisations?
Stakeholder Interviews
To answer this question, Professor Dalziel is asking stakeholders in business and education to
participate in one-on-one interviews with him at a time and location that is convenient to each
participant (normally in their workplace office). Each interview is anticipated to take about 45
minutes. The report will list the names of the people who agree for an interview (unless
anonymity is requested), but nothing from the interviews will be published that could identify
the person or his or her institution.
The purpose of the interviews is to gain insight into the topics listed on the next page of this
invitation. The report will include proposals for how current support systems in New Zealand
might be improved, to be developed further in year 4 of the EEL research programme.
Participants in the interviews will be sent a copy of the report in draft, and will be given the
opportunity to offer comments and suggestions for change in advance of its publication. If
you have any questions about this research project, please contact Professor Paul Dalziel at
Paul.Dalziel@lincoln.ac.nz or on his mobile phone at 021 0607 150.
27
eel
Semi-Structured Guide for Interviews
(Employer-Led Channels)
1.
From your own position in your organisation, what would you say are the general
strengths and weaknesses in the way employer groups and education institutions are
currently linked to each other?
2.
What information do you think young people in secondary and tertiary institutions need
to know about employment opportunities as they make training and education choices?
3.
What information does your organisation provide to young people making training and
education choices?
4.
Do you have quality assurance procedures for the information you provide?
5.
Do you think there are any gaps in the information received by young people making
training and education choices?
6.
What careers guidance or careers education are young people able to access through your
organisation?
7.
Do you have quality assurance procedures for the careers guidance or careers education
offered through your organisation?
8.
Do you think there are any gaps in the careers guidance or careers education available to
young people making training and education choices?
9.
Do you have any suggestions about how we could improve our current systems for
supporting young people make good education employment linkages?
Contact
If you have any questions about this research project, please contact Professor Paul Dalziel at
Paul.Dalziel@lincoln.ac.nz or on his mobile phone at 021 0607 150.
28
eel
Appendix 2: List of Participants
Chrissi Bollard
Robyn Bridges
Chris Bridgman
Michael Burgess
Allen Chang
Andrew Coker
Joanna Consedine
Mark Cumisky
Mark Dronjak
Nancy Dunlop
Penny Fenwick
Dale Furbish
Andrew Giltrap
Dave Guerin
Richard Hay
Diana Hudson
Nyk Huntington
Phil Ker
Brian Lane
Graeme McClennan
Jen McCutcheon
John McWilliam
Dean Muir
Carrie Murdoch
Nicky Murray
Phil O‘Reilly
Lester Oakes
Lyn Parlane
Mina Patel
Kathleen Perry
Ross Petersen
Gabrielle Riley
Aaron Shackell-Smith
Greg Simmonds
Anna Smith
David Trought
Heather Trought
Stephen Walker
Dale Williams
Phil Williams
Les Wilson
Manukau Institute of Technology
University of Otago
University of Canterbury
Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern)
City of Manukau Education Trust (COMET)
Priority One
University of Canterbury
University of Otago
Hospitality Standards Institute
Auckland University of Technology
New Zealand Vice-Chancellors‘ Committee
Auckland University of Technology
Otorohanga District Development Board
ITP New Zealand
Southland Chamber of Commerce
Otago Southland Employers Association
Industry Training Federation
Otago Polytechnic
Competenz
Manukau Institute of Technology
The Correspondence School
Electricity Supply Industry Training Organisation
FITEC
Business New Zealand
Industry Training Federation
Business New Zealand
Career Services
Priority One
Auckland University of Technology
AgricultureITO
Electrotechnology Industry Training Organisation
Electricity Supply Industry Training Organisation
City of Manukau Education Trust (COMET)
Priority One
Southern Institute of Technology
FITEC
Auckland University of Technology
University of Otago
Mayor of Otorohanga
FITEC
Building and Construction ITO
29
eel
30